Malegaon
was wonderfully free from communalism and its tension in the halcyon
days after the Independence. Bigotry against the minority Muslim community
appeared on the scene thanks to the growth of aggressive Hindutva.
In later times this would become the defining characteristic of communalism
in and around the city. The eighties was the turbulent decade of Indian
social life. BJP was the new avatar of the communalist party Jan Sangh.
While there was some degree of communalism intermittently, it was
during this era that Congress leaders left their secular commitment
in a brazen manner. Indira Gandhi started visiting temples from January
1, 1984. Later her son opened the doors of the historic Babri mosque
for Hindus to pray. Thus the Pandora's Box lay opened. Unfortunately
for the country these were also the years of Sikh militancy and the
backlash against the Sikh community all over the land.

A local
event symbolizing the national chaos was how on September 10, 1984
GM Puntambekar and five of his close associates had halted the Ganesh
procession at the central mosque in the bazaar at 11 and dancing to
the tune of the drum beat went on when the midday prayer inside the
mosque began. Vermillion powder was thrown on the walls. The police
took two more days to file a case against the six on September 23
for creating enmity between the two communities. In the first place
they had not taken any precaution although Puntamberkar was indicted
by Justice Madan Commission inquiring into the Bhiwandi riots of 1980.
He was blamed by the Commission for making inflammatory speeches against
the Muslims in Bhiwandi prior to the riots. In the second place nothing
came out of the police action.

Aggressive
insistent Hindutva communalism had manifested first in the late sixties
when RSS leader GM Puntamberkar took out a protest march to the lane
in a Muslim locality where a butcher had slaughtered a cow. Marching
into the Muslim area produced tension, something new to the people.
It was the police who would enforce ban on cow slaughter during festival
or other days. Now it was RSS and its cadres who had taken the law
in their hands in such a daring manner in a thickly populated area.
The butcher claimed that he was sold the cow in order to be trapped.

This was
the precursor of what was to come with greater force. One such was
creating different identities for the natives who were quite harmoniously
one till then dealing with each other in daily life. If there was
beating of drum before the main mosque and red powder thrown on the
walls of it, it was construed to be the work of stray miscreants.
Determined and deliberate attempts surface in the eighties to chalk
out a new identity chipping off the national unified existence. Thus
the Hindu Ekta Sammetar [sammelan?] made a loud appearance on January
26, 1986 on the road leading to the public/college ground where Independence
Day and Republic Day are celebrated. Loudspeakers blared how there
would be a separate celebration in which Hindus would be invited.
The camp/ MG road was ringing with this discordant sound as students,
police, and government servants and the public were hurrying through
to reach the public ground. Unknown till then, there splashed in the
consciousness the phenomenon of separate identity. In the second week
of the next month many towns were marred by communal tension, there
was firing at Jama masjid in Delhi, Calcutta, Jammu, Sehoro near Bhopal,
etc. This continued in the third week. And what was novel, Hindus
started beating Kashmiri Muslims passing through Jammu on February
22. Much like what happened in 2008 agitation over the allotment of
land to Amarnath pilgrimage. In a way communalism in Malegaon was
microcosmic manifestation of the macrocosmic upheaval.

Meerut
riots erupted on March 7. Next day Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister GM
Shaw had to leave office for not controlling communal violence in
the state. Writing in the Onlooker March 16-31, 1986 Maneka Gandhi
said that never before did the Muslims feel so much besieged as now.
RSS functionary Mr Mate was in Malegaon during this period. He trained
Hindus how to defend their culture. In the district town of Nasik
on April 21 Hindu leaders wanted to take out victory procession through
Muslim areas on the occasion of the opening of Babri mosque door.
They were detained and later released. They blamed the police for
being impartial here while in Punjab the police colluded with the
Sikh militants in attacks on Hindus.

On May
15th in Umapur, Beed district, Hindus killed several Muslims. Reports
of such incidents naturally made Muslims apprehensive as would the
Jagannath yatra . subsequently many fell victim to the communal violence
in Ahmedabad and in one gory incident Muslim patients were thrown
down from the fourth floor of a hospital to be killed by the mob waiting
on the ground.

On May
6th the parliament passed Muslim women (protection of rights in divorce)
bill by 372 to 54 in favour. This was as disastrous as opening of
the doors of Babri mosque as it was an ill conceived way of playing
with communal politics for electoral gains. The Hindutva groups used
the opening of the door for making even more strident demand for rebuilding
a Ram temple on the site of the mosque. Parallel to this they also
took the parliament bill as a stick to beat the ruling party and also
launch anti Muslim movement in the name of so called "appeasement"
of the minority.

1986 would
be remembered for a very histrionic brinkmanship as much condemnable
as that of the RSS leader of what he did in 1967. The local 'Janta'
leader Nihal Ahmad stomped the Ganesh mandal decorative structure
in order to clear the way for the procession of tazia. On the occasion
of Moharram Muslims had always taken out procession and it went through
the fixed government approved routes which included the Parsi sodawalla
dooryard where some Hindus lived. But on this occasion the Ganesh
festival coincided with the Moharram. The Hindus raised structures
made of clay and grass for ten day festivity. The police did not act
in time and solve the complex situation. Taking advantage of it Ahmad
stepped in and did what was caught on camera and Xerox copies of the
photo were pasted all over the town and the newspapers carried the
same. An intense communal ill feeling against the leader led almost
to a riot. For a whole week Hindutva leaders would address mammoth
gathering of Hindus in Tilak square in protest. Thankfully the town
was sparred a real riot.

But the
harm was already done. The present home minister of Maharashtra was
then leader of Shiv Sena. Chaggan Bhujbal used most abusive language
against Ahmad in the assembly and outside he was even more vitriolic.
He squarely blamed him and so did Anna Patil of Maratha Mahasangh.
The latter targeted him for the recent parliament bill and ridiculed
his community which enjoyed the provision of four wives. Bhujbal held
out a threat that Muslims would be taught a lesson at the appropriate
time. All this kept the communal tension palpable. These demarcated
the Muslim with an identity that made them look as 'the other.'

However
the terms on which Hindus agreed to call off their boycott and immerse
Ganesh idols would create more hurdles in the future. The government
conceded to the demands and allowed 93 groups of people from the town
and nearby villages to immerse the idols in Malegaon taking their
own time during the procession. There was the caveat: that would happen
only when the idols from Dattnager would be taken through Muslim areas
and would reach the remaining. Such an arrangement would enable them
to stop at mosque fronts and dance and play loud music for hours together.
Many people saw this as scoring off points over not Ahmad but the
Muslim community and the minority people also felt that imitation
reservoir which Ahmad had kicked was a ploy to gain ultimately these
terms of agreement. Later years would see tension generated on account
of the passing of the Dattnager procession though the thickly populated
lanes of Muslim locality. The clear beneficiaries were the Hindutva
groups. But on September 23 1986 when Duttnager procession passed
through Muslim areas the tension rose in a crescendo as vermillion
powder was thrown on mosques. It is reported that the cost of the
powder alone was fifteen thousand rupees. A look back in the history
as here may help us to evolve better mechanism to achieve lasting
peace and maintain communal harmony.

One of
the most problematic objectives of the Ganesh committees was their
desire for untrammeled right to have as much time as they liked and
no interference of the administration and the police so far as their
conduct on the road during the procession was concerned. This is true
as of 2008. On September 8, the chairperson of the central committee
of the Ganesh festivity, Sandeep Abhonkar had threatened to halt immersion
unless the police cancelled the extradition notice against his committee
members. The police had acted on the past conduct of the members ho
had created law and order problem. He asserted that Hindus were capable
of defending themselves and did not want the police; they were powerful
enough to handle any eventuality. This was an insinuation.

In the
aftermath of the Mumbai attack of 26/11 the public anger against the
police and the administration must also make us know the past and
prepare for a better future where there is no riot. In Shashi Tharoor's
novel "Riot" the parents of the American girl come to India
to understand what led to her death in the riots of the eighties.
That is how one comes to terms with the past to live a better life
hereafter. But with a proviso in the pithy words from EM Forster's
novel "Howard's End": only connect.